Shintaro - The Samurai - TV Fan Page.

Shintaro -

The SAMURAI

Onmitsu Kenshi
Last revised: November 07, 2009.

Back in the 1960's,

one of the biggest programs on Australian TV was The Samurai with Shintaro - the master swordsman and his faithful sidekick Tombei the Mist - of the Iga Ninja.

Produced in Japan and dubbed into English, this program had a style all its own.

Shintaro fights off a surprise attack

When the star Koichi Ose visited Melbourne he had a bigger crowd turned out than for the Beatles.

Now that the series is starting to be released on video and DVD,
serious collectors may like to have a checklist of the original episodes.

The links below will allow you to browse (or download) both an episode checklist and an alphabetical cross reference. The latter is useful because the retail video cassette numbers do not correspond to the original chronology.

Tombei is attacked with blinding snow !

Browse :

Theme Music :

WAV (Lo-fi) format 285k (Zipped)
Media Player format 968k (Zipped)

I know nothing about music,
but if you ignore key, tempo and instrumentation,
I reckon there is a similarity between
THIS BIT of the Samurai theme
and the opening of the theme from
Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Series Credits :

CHARACTER	ACTOR	ENGLISH
Shintaro ...	Koichi Ose	...William Ross
Tombei (the Mist) ...	Fuyukichi Maki
Kongo of Koga ...	Bin Amatsu

Script...	Yasushi Kato, Masaru Igami
Directors...	Sadao Funatoko, ToruToyama. Asst: Akira Kikuchi.
Music...	Hirooki Agawa
Exec. Producer...	Toshio Kobayashi

2009 - November

Siren Visual Entertainment announce the re-issue of the complete collection of Samurai DVDs !

Siren Samurai Announcement

2009 - February

A spin-off feature film has now been released on DVD in a subtitled version
"Detective Fencer" :-

"While helping a wounded agent of the Iga NinjaShintaro is attacked by Koga , agents who think he received an item that they had already killed in an effort to obtain.

"The dying Iga ninja had whispered a cryptic phrase to him; something that would lead him into the middle of an attempt to overthrow the Shogunate and threaten his very life.

"Can Shintaro's expert swordsmanship defeat the deadly skills of the Koga Ninjaassassins , a group of heartless like no other?"

Available From:-

2007 - August

Siren Visual Entertainment advise END OF AVAILABILITY of their range of Samurai DVDs !

"We’re going to have to stop selling Samurai DVDs as of the end of September. After this, the series will be again out of print."

"...Season 1 is officially completely sold out!
If you are looking for seasons 2-6 better order them now before you miss out completely..."

Further info can be found on their web site :-

Siren Visual - Home Page

Samurai Box Sets on Siren Catalogue

So fellow fans of Shintaro, get in for your chop now !

2003 - Series 1 & 2 DVDs - became availaable in BOX SETS !

2002 - DVD ANNOUNCEMENT
from SIREN VISUAL ENTERTAINMENT:

"Siren Visual Entertainment, as of Friday 22nd of March,
has contracted for 6 consecutive series of THE SAMURAI,"
to be released from September/October 2002.

"The tapes have been remastered, although still not pristine they are improved from what has previously been available and the sound quality is noticeably better.

"They will be DVD releases, however VHS will be considered, if demand is high enough. 13 episodes, from each series, will be available on either 3 or 4 dvd's/vhs."

http://www.sirenvisual.com.au

TV Week 1969

A small selection of episodes were previously released on VHS by Siren Entertainment, some of which were show on FOXTEL - http://www.foxtel.com.au

Checkout

Nikki White's ENSOVAARI EMBASSY
which provides an IN.DEPTH analysis of The Samurai and its historical context.

Glen Johnson's Samurai page: Roglen
Wikipedia Page
IMDB Samurai page

The Samurai was originally produced by Senkosha Productions Tokyo from 1962 to 1965. This has now become Senkosha Advertising. At time of writing the rights had been held by Galaxy Films (If any-one knows their web address please let me know).

Many thanks to Nikki White ("Ninja in the Belfry" 1988)

Go Up to :

Rocket TV Fan Page

WebMaster rj4oz-web ati@yahoo.com.au

This is an AMATEUR fan site, operating under FAIR USE provision.
It is NOT associated with Senkosha, Galaxy Films, Siren Entertainment, Scanlens
nor any of the licencees or holders of whatever rights.
All trademarks and copyright belong to their respective owners.
No attempt is made to supersede copyright, etc, etc. KAM PIE !